Erkang Wang was born in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China. He is an analytical chemist and was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1991, and a member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing Country in 1993. He is the founder of the State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, which evolved from the Open Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry in 1989. Since obtaining his Ph. D from the Polarographic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences under the guidance of Professor J. Heyrovsky in 1959, he has been dedicated to the research of analytical chemistry and electroanalytical chemistry for over seven decades, making significant contributions to the development of analytical science. In the 1950s and 1960s, he proposed the universal law of polarographic oxidation wave using mercury electrode prompted by anion, and put forward the theory of the formation of mercury complex and mercury salt film at the interface, which enriched and developed the theory of polarography.¹⁾ In the 1970s, he and his co-workers have successfully developed series of polarographic instruments, providing an important tool for the development of polarography.²⁾ In the 1980s, he pioneered the linear current method for studying liquid/liquid interface electrochemistry, innovatively proposed an ion-transfer new theory, opened up research on biomimetic membrane electrochemistry, and promoted the developments in electroanalytical chemistry.³⁾ Over the past decades, Professor Wang and his team have continuously explored fundamental and applied research in electrochemical scanning probe microscopy,⁴⁾ capillary electrophoresis electrochemistry (CE-EC),⁵⁾ nano-bioelectrochemistry,^6-9) bipolar electrochemistry^10-12) and etc. Since the late 20th century, Wang has been leading his team extensively studying in electrochemiluminescence (ECL),^5-20) electrocatalysis,^20-27) biofuel cells (BFCs),^28,29) nanozymes,^30-35) nucleic acid^36-46) and interdisciplinary field, further expanded their research fields. Moreover, Wang’s team has been continuously developing electroanalytical instruments, which greatly promote the development of related research, such as ECL analyzer^9,13-18,20) and on-line water quality monitoring system.⁸⁾ To date, Professor Wang's distinguished research career includes the publication of more than 1,000 scientific papers indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI). His work has been cited over 62,000 times and he has achieved an impressive H-index of 115. He has been honored as the highly ranked scholar-lifetime in the field of chemistry (ranked 6^th in China) by the ScholarGPS. He has been honored with 18 national, ministerial, and provincial-level scientific achievement awards and 2 international prizes. In terms of innovation, over 60 patents have been authorized. He has given over 200 presentations internationally as an invited speaker. Furthermore, he has been appointed as a visiting professor by numerous universities and research institutions worldwide.

The properties of concentrated electrolyte phases, an area with a long history of electrochemical study, are enjoying a resurgence of interest. The renewal of interest in this area, partly driven by their applications in energy storage, also leads to more fundamental questions about their properties. This short review attempts to summarise some of the relevant literature and to suggest interesting avenues for future study.